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“Thanks Manu, for everything,” Pouille had said. “It’s in large part thanks to you that I’m here now.”

Though they parted ways in November last year, Planque says that there is nothing but love between the two. “I worked with Lucas for more than six years. We started in 2012 when he was a still a junior and in fact the last time I came to Chennai was with him when he played a Challenger here in 2014,” recalled Planque, who is now here as 19-year old Corentin Moutet’s coach. Moutet is the second seed in the Chennai Open Challenger which begins here from Monday.

Talking further about his star student Pouille, Planque said that they both felt it was time for a change. “Lucas is a very good player and I have enjoyed my time with him. We achieved a lot together but we both felt that it was the correct time for us to part because he needed a different voice which he has now got with Amelie (Mauresmo).

“But we are still very close. He is like my son and I am like his second father. I was of course very happy to see him in the Australian Open semifinals. Unfortunately he lost to Novak but then again he was unbeatable this year. Lucas has the talent to win Grand Slams and he works hard. I can’t predict exactly when but I know he eventually will.”

Under Planque, Pouille also broke into the top 10 last year and his former coach says that it wasn’t an easy journey. “When we started out he was just 18 and hungry but I knew we needed to take it step by step. With Lucas we finally cracked the top 10 last year but believe me we lost a lot of bad matches.

“But the best thing about him was that he never stopped believing in himself. Lucas used to tell me every day, 'One day I am going to be in the top 10 and I always said yes if you work hard enough’ and he did it. I am sure he will be back again among the top players.”

Though many would say that Pouille’s best achievement was when he defeated Rafael Nadal at the 2016 US Open last 16, Planque disagrees. “My best moment with Lucas was definitely the Davis Cup final in 2017 when we beat Belgium to win the title. We were playing in Lille and since Lucas is from the north of France he was kind of a local hero there. It was in a big arena of 27000 people and he won the decisive fifth rubber. That was very special for every Frenchman and the emotions that night were even better than when he won against Rafa,” Planque said.